Uley is a village and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.
In 2011 the population of the civil parish was 1,151, but was much greater during the early years of the industrial revolution, when the village was renowned for producing blue cloth. The placename (recorded as Euuelege in the Domesday Book) probably signifies 'clearing in a common yew wood'.
History
The
ancient Rome built a temple at West Hill, near Uley, on the site of an earlier prehistoric shrine. Following the laying of a water main pipe there in 1976, many discoveries were made including numerous Roman writing tablets
or lead
from the temple area. These writing tablets appear often to relate to theft, and here the mention of animals and farm implements is a regular theme. There is an ongoing, online project to catalogue all those found at West Hill.
Other remains from this temple, including a fine stone head of Mercury, can now be seen in the
British Museum.
There were significant Roman villas nearby at
Frocester, Kingscote, and Woodchester, and there is a little-known
Roman villa beneath Cam Peak on the road into Dursley.
St Giles's Church near the village green was designed by the 19th-century architect Samuel Sanders Teulon. His building replaced an earlier church dating back to Normans times, which had in turn replaced a Anglo-Saxons church. The nearby church of the Holy Cross at Owlpen also has Saxon origins: the church there was rebuilt in 1828 by Samuel Manning and enlarged and decorated in 1876 by James Piers St Aubyn. There were also non-conformist chapels at South St and Whitecourt until the early 1970s.
The village was once famous for its large number of pubs (around 14), lately reduced to a single hostelry (The Old Crown). Until the 1970s there was also a butcher's shop and a petrol station, these were subsequently replaced by antique shops and occasional restaurants, and now only a small village shop remains.
The area surrounding Whitecourt appears to have some considerable historical significance, with long associations to the Osborne family and a possible Roman road transecting from Kingscote to the East via Bencombe, crossing the Ewelme brook close to the previous mill buildings opposite Stouts hill and then transiting what is now Lampern View before exiting west towards Cam/Coaley;
The increased mechanisation of agriculture in the area (arable on top of the escarpment, sheep on it and cattle in the valleys) led to a gradual decline during the inter-war periods and this led to the construction of three Council house - South Street, Lampern View and Raglan Way. However, increased mobility following the construction of the M4 and the Severn Bridge in the mid-1960s, together with an influx of skilled/managerial/professional workers following the establishment of such facilities as the Berkeley power station, led to a steady gentrification of the village, witnessed by the construction of substantial detached homes, for example at Court Gardens, South Street and Green Close.
During the 1920s, Miss Edna Cunningham, brought a baby gorilla to Uley who she named John Daniel.
Economy
Uley Brewery was established in the 1980s, in a Grade II
listed building that had been part of the 1833 Price Brewery which closed at the end of the 19th century. Its range of ales includes
Old Spot Prize Ale, a 5%
abv old ale, and
Uley Bitter, a 4% abv cask bitter.
Amenities and surrounding locality
The following amenities and attractions are available in and around the village:
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North of the village is a Neolithic burial mound known as Hetty Pegler's Tump
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The Prema Arts Centre,
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Uley CofE VC primary school has around 100 pupils. Uley Primary School
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A Reading Room (Library) burned down in the mid-1960s and has not been replaced.
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An ancient Iron Age hill fort called Uley Bury
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Downham Hill lies just to the west. It is also known as 'Smallpox Hill' because of the smallpox Fever hospital that stood on the top of the hill many years ago. It is believed to be among the oldest isolation hospitals in England. Masonry from the buildings remains visible at the site. Near the hilltop are remnants of a tower-like dwelling constructed in 1346 during the reign of Edward III. Area to the north of the hill was used for rabbit breeding during the middle ages.
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To the east is Owlpen Manor,
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Stouts Hill, a neo-Gothic country house just outside the village, was the birthplace of the Gloucestershire historian Samuel Rudder and of the distinguished Persian scholar Edward Granville Browne. Built for the Gyde family, from the 1770s it was a seat of the Lloyd-Baker family, who in the 20th century let the house as a preparatory school. It included amongst its alumni Mark Phillips, Stephen Fry and Rik Mayall, but closed down in 1979.
People
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Brigadier Michael Dauncey lived in the village until his death in August 2017.
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Richard Clyburn invented an early adjustable spanner.
See also
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Hundred of Uley, South Australia
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Uleybury - named after the village by Moses Bendle Garlick, a Weaving from Uley, who migrated to Australia and settled just north of what is currently Adelaide in 1837
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Uley, South Australia
Bibliography
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Ann Woodward and Peter Leach, The Uley Shrines: Excavation of a ritual complex on West Hill, Uley 1977-79 (1993), English Heritage,
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Alan Saville, Uley Bury and Norbury Hillforts (1983), Western Archaeological Trust,
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Ed. Alan Bebbington, A History of Uley, Gloucestershire (2003), The Uley Society,
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Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 1960,
Further reading
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Lloyd-Baker, M. May Ruth. (n.d.) The Story of Uley. Dursley: Gazette Office.
External links
